The Best Things In Life....

ARE FREE!!!!

Today I went out to visit my parents. My little sister "Smalls" has been begging (and at times harassing) me for a long time to come visit so we can go for a hike. Near my parents there are many good places to go hiking. We decided to go hike a mountain. But not just any mountain, it had to be a big one, AND it was very important to be fun! So we went off-roading in my dodge neon and found the perfect mountain. As I parked and looked up I was having a little bit of second thoughts. It was a very large pile of rocks and did not look too stable. But that didn't stop us, we hiked to the top and had the most amazing view. We had a 360 degree view of the valley. The mountain was very stable. It was fun as we tried to find my parents house and looked for my car. We played games. One game that we found fun was looking for where we would live if we were homeless, needless to say my energetic 9 year old companion found some really cool places. I was a little surprised at the lack of wildlife, normally when I've gone to this area before we see birds, lizards, rabbits, and if we're lucky a coyote and if we're not a snake! But not this time we saw a bird and that was it. On the way back to my parent's we realized that it gets REALLY cold at night still and lizards would be sleeping. And birds fly south for the winter.

When we got back to the house, I found out that my mom would be working tonight and that my dad was taking another sister "Red2" to a dance; they said they could use a babysitter. I was overjoyed with this; I got to spend the entire day with three of the coolest kids around. They have so much energy. And they are such good kids. We watched a movie, made dinner, ate popcorn, listened to music, cleaned house, and read from a few books. After the girls got ready for bed I went to each one and was able to get the sweetest hugs and kisses, then they fell asleep extremely fast. My dad came home with "Red2" and they had a fun time. And seeing that I really did need to get back home to go back studying for boards I came back to my apartment.

On the way back it hit me that everything I did today didn't cost anything but time. And it was the most fulfilling day I've had in awhile. We had fun playing and working together. I look forward to hopefully doing it again soon.